Car-coupling



(No Model.) I

' F. A. POX.

I CAR COUPLING. No. 429,026. Patented May 27, 1890.

Wain/644w. [LN/62% Zm".

5Qmk Q 6% UNITED STATEsPATENT ()FFICE.

FRANK AVERILL FOX, OF SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA.

CAR-COU PLING.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 429,026, dated May 2'7,1890.

' Application filed February 15, 1890- $erial No. 340,617- (No model.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, FRANK AVERILL FOX, a citizen of the United States,residing at San Francisco, in the county of San Francisco and State ofCalifornia, have invented certain new and useful Improvements inOar-Couplers; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear,and exact description of said invention, such as will enable othersskilled in the art to which it most nearly appertains to make, use, andpractice the same.

My invention relates to that class of devices for coupling cars togetherin which two hinged leaves, each of which has a locking tail-piece, aremade to automatically interlock with each other by impact. In this classof couplers a horizontal opening is always made in the edge of each leafto receive the end of an ordinary link, should it become necessary atany time to connect a car having the old link-and-pin coupling with onehaving the hinged leaf coupling, and a vertical hole is made through theend of the leaf, so as to pass transversely across this opening, throughwhich a pin can be inserted to secure the link in place. The horizontalopening must be deep enough to receive the end of the link and allow thepin to drop through it. The hinge-connections by which the leaf isjointed to the coupler-head also necessitate the cutting away of aportion of the upper and lower outside corners of the leaf next to thearm of the coupler-head to which it is connected, so that only a narrowneck of metal is left between the angle of the outside recess and thebottom or angles of the link-opening. It has been found that this is theweak part of this class of couplers, as the breakage always occurs atthis point. The corners of the openings and of the recesses referred tohave heretofore been uniformly made sharp and angular, so that a suddenconcussion or coming together of two coupler-heads was liable to cause afracture to extend from the sharp angle of the outside recess across thenarrow neck of metal to the sharp angle of the linkopening.

The object of my invention is to remedy this difficulty, and this Iaccomplish by making the corners of both the link-opening and theoutside recesses on circular lines, or rounding, thereby providing agreater body and thickness of metal across this formerly weak point anddestroying the sharp angles, which afford a starting-point for afracture.

Referring to the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 is a plan view of acoupler-head with its locking-leaf. Fig. 2 is a front View showing thehinged leaf with its interlocking outside recesses and link-opening; andFig. 3 is a vertical section through the line 00 at, Fig. 1, with theparts slightly separated.

Let A represent a coupler-head of the class above referred to.

B is the hinged locking-leaf, which is connected to one arm or branch ofthe couplerhead by a knuckle or hinge joint.

C is the opening in the outer end of the leaf, into which the end of alink is received when an ordinary link-coupling is to be connected withit, and D is the transverse hole through which the coupling-pin passesto lock the link in the opening. The bottom of this recess I make oncircular lines, or rounding, as shown at Fig. 3.

E E, Fig. 3, represent the recesses at the outer corners of the hingedend of the leaf, which interlock with the projecting lugs F F on thecoupler-head to form a hinge or knuckle joint. The corners of theserecesses I also make on circular lines,'or rounding, so that a greaterbody of metal is introduced in the narrow neck between the angles of therecesses and the angle of the link-opening, and the sharp angle isavoided. The inner corners of the lugs F F are also made on circularlines, or rounding to conform with the shape of the recesses.

This improvementis of great practical utility. It remedies a seriousdefect in this class of couplers that has heretofore been regarded asone of the objections to this hinged-leaf coupler. The'weakness occurredat just that point where it seemed impossible to remedy it Without ageneral reconstruction of the joint-connections. I have discovered,however, that the additional strength obtained from my improvedconstruction is nevertheless sufficientto avoid unusual breakage at thispoint.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim, and desire to secureby Letters Patent, is-

1. In a car-coupling of the hinged-leaf type,

the combination, with a coupler-head, of a hinged leaf provided with ahorizontal linkopening, the corners at the bottom of said opening beingrounded or curved, said hinged leaf also provided with anoutwardly-extending reduced portion adapted to fit in a correspondingrecess in the coupler-head, the corners of the recess formed by saidreduced portion being rounded or curved, substantially as set forth.

2. In a car-coupling of the hinged-leaf type, the combination, with acoupler-head provided with a suitable recess, the shoulders formed bysaid recess having their corners rounded or curved, of a hinged leafprovided with a horizontal link-opening, the corners at FRANK AVERILLFOX.

In presence of- PHILo MILLS, W. R. Boone.

